With the eight-game suspension he earned earlier in the week, Zac Rinaldo has now been suspended 14 games in his NHL career. We alluded to this in the story we wrote about Rinaldo last week, but he’s teetering on the brink of actually being disciplined by this league more than he’s actually played in it.
I was curious, so I did the math.
Zac Rinaldo has played 1,675 minutes in the NHL. The league has disciplined him for a total of 1,449 minutes pic.twitter.com/9GMOIRbM2O
— Travis Hughes (@TravisSBN) January 27, 2015
Suspensions
8 game suspension = 480 minutes
4 game suspension = 240 minutes
2 game suspension = 120 minutes
Total time: 840 minutes.
Penalty minutes
2010-11: 12 minutes (all playoffs)
2011-12: 232 (regular season) + 48 (playoffs) = 280 minutes
2013: 85 minutes (all regular season)
2013-14: 153 (regular season) + 4 (playoffs) = 157 minutes
2014-15: 75 minutes (so far)
Total time: 609 minutes
In total, Zac Rinaldo has spent 1,449 minutes being disciplined by the National Hockey League. Here’s how much time he’s spent on the ice:
Minutes played per season
2010-11: 6 minutes (all playoffs)
2011-12: 494 (regular season) + 28 (playoffs) = 522 minutes
2013: 268 minutes (all regular season)
2013-14: 516 (regular season) + 48 (playoffs) = 564 minutes
2014-15: 315 minutes (so far)
Total time: 1,675 minutes
So Rinaldo has played just 226 minutes of NHL hockey more than he’s spent being disciplined by the league. That has to be close to unprecedented.
Since I tweeted that yesterday, a number of people have claimed that this is a bit disingenuous of a statistic, and that if we wanted to be more accurate, we should look at his average TOI per game, not 60 minutes per game he’s suspended. But that misses the point, and it’s not really how penalties work.
You’re penalized two minutes for a minor infraction whether you were going to play those full two minutes or not. Same with five minute major penalties or game misconducts. You’re credited with the full time of the penalty, not just the time you would have been on the ice during said penalty. A one-game suspension is merely a 60 minute penalty.
No matter how you slice this, though, the point remains: Zac Rinaldo does not know how to control himself on the ice, and it hurts the Flyers more than it helps them.
